[TIP: Perhaps making a list will help you to compare, and closing your eyes will help you to focus only on the sounds.]

Place, Location and Climate

North, South, East and West – sounds change as we travel around the world. Even as we travel through one town or city, different neighbourhoods can sound very different.

Different climate zones will sound very different from one another. The sounds of the arctic or antarctic (think of snowy ice sheets and polar bears) will be very different to the sounds of the tropics (rainforest, parrots and buzzing insect sounds).

Composition Tip

Therefore, when we compose with sounds, we can use recordings of keynote sounds to make people think that they are listening to sounds in different locations.

Postcards from Summer (Excerpt)

Listen to this clip. Can you hear how the shifting keynote sounds transport you on a journey between a series of different iconic locations?

Being Creative

By manipulating or introducing keynote sounds and sound marks, we can change people’s perception of what they think they are listening to: where they think it is, when they think it is happening and what is going on.

This can be a very powerful tool in constructing imaginary soundscapes.

When we watch these films and television programmes, we hear the sounds and they help us to believe that the characters and plots are actually taking place in outer space (when they are really happening in a film studio).

In this scenario, the sound designer has composed the soundscape, introducing keynote sounds and sound marks which tell us about the supposed location.

Activity – So Where Do the Sounds Come From?

Sound designers will use the following process to find the sounds that they need.

1. Try to make a list of the sounds that you might expect to hear.
2. Close your eyes and imagine these sounds on their own.
3. Think of the characteristics of these sounds. What do they sound like?
4. Try to think of any similar sounds that you might come across every day.

Once we have some idea of what types of sounds we need, we can go out and try to find them.

Sometimes we can’t find the sound directly, BUT we can find a sound which can then be transformed into the sound that we need.

Composition Example: Spaceship Sounds

Imagine the sounds of a spaceship.

Very few people have actually been on a spaceship, but many of us have some idea of what a spaceship might sound like. This is because sound designers, working in film and television, have taken everyday sounds and edited them together to create these pretend soundscapes.

Spaceships often might be expected to contain sounds like, the beeping or clicking of technology/machinery, whirring or droning sounds of the environment on board and the zap of a laser gun.

All of these sounds have to be abstracted from the world around us and edited together.

Technology Sounds

Beeping sounds can be found around us in modern technology, but usually we want spaceship sounds to seem futuristic. This may mean that we need to create beeping sounds from simple sine tones, or at least transform recordings that we make with reverberation and delay.

Transformed Spaceship Sound

Whirring Environment Sound

The atmosphere of the spaceship is very important. We need to impart the impression of whirring technology and a closed environment. We can find similar sounds in schools and office buildings with air conditioning units, though we may need to transform these sounds.